Tickets: $20 adults, $17.50 seniors, $15 students/children; $50 for special 2 p.m. Aug. 17 show with food and beverages to celebrate the second anniversary of That's Showbiz. All tickets available by calling (209) 938-0447 or online at http://showbiztheatre.org

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For Sheri Garland, it's one last turn on the local stage.

For Alex Freitas and Elizabeth Erardi, it's an opportunity to keep up their acting chops during summer vacation.

For the audience at That's Showbiz, the melodrama "The Masked Canary" provides a chance to laugh and hiss and boo and interact with performers during a six-show run that opens Friday.

Backed by the piano playing of Chris Hewitt, "The Masked Canary" is set in Tombstone, Ariz., where Amanda, in an effort to provide for her daughter, disguises herself to perform at the Birdcage Theatre. She becomes known as the Masked Canary, and Judge Mortimer Harshly discovers her secret and tries to blackmail her. The arrival of Amanda's daughter and her beau ignites the action.

"Melodrama is very theatrical in style," director Elizabeth Costello said. "There's no fourth wall. You include the audience continuously. You're very aware they are there and interact with them."

Being quick on their feet with a good improvisation is an actor's best friend in melodrama, and while Freitas said he's still learning that skill, he impressed the director and returns as the villain, which he played in the company's first melodrama a year ago.

"It's his timing. He has the best comedic timing," Costello said of her leading man. "He's a theatre major, and I'm excited he's come back this summer and is reprising his role. He's a different villain; a darker villain than last year."

Actually, Freitas, who is about to begin his junior year at LaVerne University, said his villain is sleazier than the one he played in last year's "Dark Deeds at Swan's Place."

"I think in lot of ways this villain is worse than the last villain," Freitas said. "He's more of a womanizer, really. He's a lot more sleazy. I think he's more fun in a different way. The last one was more physical."

Judge Mortimer Harshly is a departure from the dramatic roles, including Karl Hudlocke in Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" and the provost in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," which Freitas played during the school year.

"When I'm at school I do plays that are more realistic," Freitas said. "There's more depth to them. I love to act in general and I love doing plays that are nice, light-hearted and fun to play."

He was reunited with fellow St. Mary's High School graduate and "Dark Deeds" cast member Erardi, who just finished her freshman year at the Boston Conservatory, where she's a musical theater major.

Like Freitas, Erardi is doing a 180 from her previous role to play Fifi, a French maid. She spent the first part of her summer in Boston as the lead in a professional company's production of "Carrie, The Musical."

"I love the challenge of this part," said Erardi, who put on a fat suit to play Tracy in St. Mary's production of "Hairspray" for Kevin Costello. "This is sort of a sultry silly maid and I've played a lot of roles that are the ingénue or meek. This character is absolutely hilarious. You can't go too far with her. I say, 'Ooh, la la' and run around and flirt with everyone."'

Coming home for a break and launching herself onto a stage is Erardi's idea of fun. She's not only performing but also helping the cast with their musical numbers.

Erardi said her strength as a performer isn't her music or her acting or her dancing, which she's devoted herself to so that she becomes better.

The work ethic came from her parents, said Erardi, an only child, and she credits the Costellos for giving her the acting foundation to take her to a professional job and the No. 1 theatre school on her list.

"They asked me if I wanted to be in this and I did it last year and had a great time," Erardi said. "So, I said yes."

Garland hasn't been in a melodrama since 1995, but she landed the role of the heroine Amanda Goodsort, the heroine.

"I like being campy and silly and over the top," Garland said. "I also like the audience participation."

Garland has spent the last five years entertaining audiences in Linden - playing an 80-year-old Jewish grandmother in "Social Security" - and at Stockton Civic Theatre - as a Puerto Rican bath house lounge singer in "The Ritz" - among other parts.

This is the last role she'll play here before moving to Salem, Ore., to take a job in commercial leasing/property management and to be closer to the older two of her four daughters and her first grandchild, a boy.

This, she said, is a good role on which to say good-bye.

"It's fun," Garland said. "It's a very sweet role. I'm not used to being as sweet as this role, so it's a stretch. This is a fun show. The other characters are hysterical."

Her own character, Amanda Goodsort, is a bit like Glinda from "The Wizard of Oz," Garland said.

"She has a secret," Garland said. "That's what I like about her. She's a real person. She's not perfect. She has a little secret that's exposed at the end. Everybody forgives her and understands. I like that she's rounded that way."

Garland is a real person, too, full of emotions and as she prepares to leave, it's not the roles or the stages she'll miss.

"I made a lot of friends here. That's what I'll miss the most," Garland said. "I can't walk into a show at 'That's Showbiz' and not know everyone in the audience."

With "The Masked Canary," she'll be free to interact with them, one and all.